Quotes to Inspire Your Students

If you ask any of my students that I have had over the past 40 years about what it was like to be in my classroom, there are always some common themes...

• Where The Red Fern Grows. 
• Mr. Hoefs was CRAZY. 
• And you'll almost always have someone mention a quote that has stuck with them through the years that I had hanging on the wall and drilled into their minds.

For many, many years, I had written the quotes and sayings on white tag board sheets with black permanent markers. Then I got fancy and had my students help me create some more colorful signs to hang in our Maker Space.

Jolene has started taking some of these favorite sayings and quotes of mine and turning them into beautiful and classroom-worthy posters. We've come a long way, baby (don't worry, that's not actually one of the posters!). Watch our store as she adds some of my favorite "-isms" and words of wisdom in ways I never expected to see these quotes in print - and you can print them yourself! 

I can't believe I didn't ask her earlier to help me with these...what a TRANSFORMATION!

Plus she's created them so that you can send them to a print shop or print them on your own. Check them out here! 

Hydroponics Strike Again!

I'm back in the classroom {greenhouse}!

I've finally graduate middle school...and in my retirement time am volunteering at our local high school ag department. I'm working with the agriculture teacher to start up aquaponics and hydroponics systems in the high school greenhouse.

I have ten students who have volunteered their free periods to work with me on getting these systems up and running.

Here Tyler is preparing the growing bed for the nutrient solution from the tilapia fish.

Our first steps were to obtain industrial bulk containers and cut the tops off to form the bottom tank and the top growing area. We had two of these tanks donated from Honey Acres in Ashippun, Wisconsin. Both will be used for aquaponics where we will grow about 100 tilapia over the next nine months.

I'll have more updates coming! In the meantime, if you want to try hydroponics on a small scale, check out these directions for a simple Windowsill Hydroponics system!